BX 



TEE SUBJECT AND SPIEII OP THE CHRISTUM MIMSTES.' 



A S E R M I , 

PREACHED BY REQUEST IN St. PETEB'b CIIXJEOH, 



TWENTIETII-STREET, NE^V-YORK, 



ON FALSI SUNDAY, APRIL isx, 1849. 



BEING THE SUNDAY AFTEIl TIIi: 



DECEASE OF THE REV. HL'GIi S31ITH, D.D, 



LATE RECTOr^ 01 ..-AID C!II;MCL[. 



BY HENRY AiNTHON, D.D., 

UECTOK OF ST, MJlUKU OHUEOII, IX THE BO VERY, NEW-YOllK. 



PUBLISHED AT THE KEIUEST OF THE Vr,5TilV OF ST. P£TE»"s CilUKCII. 



NEW- YORK :- 
STANFORD AND SWORDS, 137. BROADWAY. 



i " 



1S49. 




qass b/\ 6' V I i) 



THE SUBJECT AND SPIRIT OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER. 



A SERMON, 

* 

PREACHED BY REG^UEST IN St. PETER'S CHURCH, 



TWENTIETH-STREET, NEW-YORK, 



ON PALM SUNDAY, APRIL 1st, 1849. 



BEING THE SUNDAY AFTER THE 



DECEASE OP THE REV. HUGH SMITH, D.D., 



LATE RECTOR OF SAID CHURCH. 



BY HENRY ANTHON, D.D., 

RECTOR OF ST. MAEk's CffDRCH, IN THE BOWERY, NEW-YORK. 



FUELISHED AT THE REQUEST OF THE VESTET OE ST. PETER'S CHURCH. 



NEW- YORK : 
STANFORD AND SWORDS, 137, BROADWAY. 

1849. 






/^370 



V- 



1 



m. 



SEEMON. 



I CORINTHTANS ii. 2, 3. 

** I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ 
and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in 
fear, and in much trembling." 

The cross and the sufferer^ taken from prison and 
from judgment to its agonies and shame, is the object, 
my brethren, with which the services of this day fill 
our view. All the solemnities of this Holy Week cen- 
tre upon the same scene.* Christian penitents, come 
together to this sight, and beholding the things which 
are done, return from it smiting their breasts. The 
Angels desire to pierce its mysteries, and the Spirits 
of the cherished ones, so dear to us while living, and 
so mourned over when summoned away, find in the 
past humiliation and present majesty of this one object 
the theme which awakens their most grateful song, 
^^ Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the Throne, 
and to the Lamb," 

* The Sermon was preached on Palm Sunday. 



Here, then, brethren, you have revealed what has 
been so well termed, " the beginning, and the ending 
of true religion ; the single hope and consolation of 
a sinful world 5 the whole business, strength, and 
glory of the Christian Ministry.'' The success of that 
ministry, (whatever may be the sphere opened for its 
exercise) must depend, under God, on the pure and 
lofty resolve with which the awful trust is received, 
and the humble, patient, and devoted spirit of its 
subsequent discharge. No passage presents both of 
these features in a clearer light than the text. The 
Apostle seems here to have laid open to us his heart 
to its innermost recess. What do we discover to 
have been its fixed aim, its ruling purpose ? It is told 
in words which show how fully it occupied his 
thoughts, and with what energy of love and devotion 
he entered into this ministry of reconcihation. " I 
determined not to know any thing among you, save 
Jesus Christ, and him crucified.'' And with what 
feelings and disposition did he proceed to carry out 
this decision ? He has left on record an answer, 
showing at a glance how profound was the sense 
entertained by him of his utter insufficiency, when put 
in contrast with the magnitude and difficulty of the 
work. "And I was with you in weakness, and in 
fear, and in much trembling." Memorable words y — 
always to be printed in their remembrance who are 
set aj)art to the weighty office and charge of messen- 
gers, watchmen, and stewards of the Lord. Happy 
are they who study to show themselves thus approved 



in their trust. Happier art thou, my Brother and 
companion beloved, whose faithful dihgence in the 
work is sealed to us by the hand of death, and made 
more dear on this sad occasion, by the vivid recollec- 
tion of what we have lost. This, my brethren, is no 
common bereavement. It is felt beyond the threshold 
of the home which it makes solitary and desolate 5 
and the parish, where his memory is so fresh in every 
heart; and our grief, as the tidings reach to other 
quarters, will be shared by many, very many, to whom 
his worth was as fully known. 

At such a time then, connected as it is with the 
most solemn week of the christian year, it will not, I 
hope, be deemed inappropriate to draw our thoughts 
to the Subject and Spirit which should mark the 
christian minister, before I attempt the mournful 
duty of carrying to your heart and my own, the 
illustration given by his example, who spent with you 
the last years of his labors, and has been welcomed 
to his rest in Christ. 

I. The text, in stating the subject of PauFs 
preaching, cannot be understood as meaning that in 
the discharge of his ministry he dwelt upon a single 
topic. Were we to follow out his determination in 
his writings, it might be shown that it was fulfilled in 
the setting forth of Christ fully and prominently as 
the End of the Law^ and the Substance of the Gos- 
pel. The expression used by Paul, is replete with 
energy, and in perfect accordance with the integrity 
and decision of his character. Here was his chief 



and conspicuous argument. Here stood confessed the 
heart, and life, and very essence of his ministry. It 
was the centre to which he made all the lines of 
christian doctrine and duty converge. It was the 
subject alone, which in his judgment, gave to the 
whole system its beauty, consistency, and strength. 
^' Jesus Christ, and Him crucified,'^ " We preach 
Christ crucified.^' He had no reserve in preaching 
this truth, and he would have accounted it treason to 
his Lord, and ruin to himself, to have neutralized and 
destroyed by strange mixtures its simple and life-giving 
virtue. And what other truth, indeed, could make 
such a demand upon his best sympathies and efforts ? 
Where was the faithful saying, so worthy of being 
preached as this, for universal acceptation? God 
manifest in the flesh; the Almighty One, humbling 
himself to become the despised and rejected of men 5 
glory exchanged for shame 5 a diadem of eternal 
majesty, for a crown of thorns; the right hand of the 
Father, for the sepulchre ! And all this abasement 
endured for the rebellious; for us who had scorned 
his grace, and trampled under foot his mercy ! O the 
depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge 
of God ! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his 
ways past finding out ! 

The apostle knew fall well that it was the testi- 
mony of grace and glory, gathered from the Death of 
the Cross alone, that could arouse the careless, subdue 
the pride and obduracy of a self-justifying spirit, com 
fort the contrite in heart, or draw forth the affections 



to the Father of mercies in glow ing zeal and abound- 
ing love. To the disputers of this world the preaching 
of the Cross seems, indeed, an instrument so utterly 
inadequate to human wants ; so entirely separated 
from any such results as the delivery of a sinner from 
tlie power and penalty of sin, and his restoration to 
the favor of an offended God ; that the employment of 
such means for the attainment of so mighty an end, is, 
in the judgement of many, accounted to be madness, 
and nothing more. But how will they explain the 
fact, that, nevertheless, it accomplishes its work, and 
is honored with success by the Holy Spirit ? How 
will they solve the dijfficulty, that while they can see 
no reason for such results, and no connexion between 
the instrument employed and the effect produced, still 
by the ^^ preaching of Christ crucified;'^ ^^by the fool- 
ishness of preaching ;'' sinners are turned from the 
power of Satan unto God ? There is no solution of 
the case, but upon one principle. It is simply because 
Jesus Christy and Mm crucified^ is the testimony and 
ordinance of God. 

The Cross, my brethren, contains an argument 
easily understood, and deeply felt in every clime and by 
every people. The annals of the Faith, from its first 
promulgation to the present day, have on this point 
but one record to unfold. When at midnight the 
foundations of the prison at Fhilippi were shaken, and 
its keeper startled out of his sleep rushed trembling 
into the dungeon, with the exceeding bitter cry, '^ What 
must I do to be saved ?^^ although his heathen pre- 



8 

posessions would have turned^ perhaps^ a deaf ear to 
the most labored reasonings of his christian captives^ 
yet could he not withstand the first emphatic an- 
nouncement to him of the Gospel; the message of 
mercy which kindled up the first ray of hope in the 
agony of his despair. '' Believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and thou shalt be saved.'' Seventeen centuries 
afterwards, when Swartz, the faithful missionary of 
the Peninsula of India, was once preaching from those 
blessed words ; " The blood of Jesus Christ his Son, 
cleanseth us from all sin j'' a Hindoo devotee, measur- 
ing his wearisome pilgrimage of many hundred miles, 
with spikes in his sandals, came exhausted and wretch- 
ed to the spot. On hearing the tidings which alone 
can bring peace to the broken spirit, he wept aloud. 
" That is what I need,'' was his cry of joy as he smote 
upon his breast, and casting from him at once the 
instruments of his shame and torture, hailed with a 
full heart the knowledge of the truth in Jesus, which 
led him afterwards a faithful disciple to his Saviour's 
feet. Now contrast with this instance, and number- 
less others of the like kind, which might be adduced, 
the experiment which is said to have been once tried 
by certain missionaries in China,* when finding the 
people offended at this doctrine, they thought it pru- 
dent to deny that Christ had been crucified, and 
affirmed that it was nothing more than a fiction, in- 
vented by Jewish mahce, to cast disgrace on Christi- 

* The Jesuits. 



9 

anit.y. The Redeemer was preached, therefore, never 
as Hfted up upon the cross, but ahcays as reigning in 
glory 5 and the result of man's device is seen to this 
day in the thick darkness of the covering still cast 
over that people, w^hilst millions in other lands, where 
Christ crucified is honored by a full exhibition of 
his grace and love, rejoice in the saving and lasting 
effects of the message of God, Leave out or keep 
back, indeed, the doctrine of the cross, the faithful 
announcement of the Atonement made by the blood 
of the One Sacrifice, and the Christian system is 
brought down at once to a level with the empty 
schemes of a vain-glorious philosophy. What then 
become of the justice and mercy of God ? How shall 
His Law be magnified, and the rights of His Govern- 
ment maintained in the pardon of the guilty ? What 
is there left of the entire revelation to abase the pride 
of m.an, to convince him how utterly he is lost, to 
warm his frozen bosom into gratitude, to constrain 
him to that holiness without which no man shall see 
the Lord ? This, we may conceive, was the view 
taken by the apostle, of the power and preciousness of 
this truth, which made him determine to know nothing 
else. It was not from ignorance of Jewish or Grecian 
learning, neither was it from inabihty to cope with 
his adversaries on any topic in the whole range of 
human knowledge, that he founded his resolve. It 
was from choice, so to preach, and so to act, as if he 
knew nothing, and had nothing to communicate, but 
one absorbing subject. '^ I came not,'' says he, " with 



10 

excellency of speech, or of wisdom, declaring unto 
you the testimony of God. For I determined not to 
know any thing among you^ save Jesus Christ, and 
him crucified/' 

11. But it is time that we should notice briefly the 
Spirit which was cherished and manifested in setting 
forth this Subject with this unfaltering resolution. 
The words here used by St. Paul, are as emphatic 
as his previous ones. " I was with you in weakness, 
and in fear, and in much trembling.^' This sinking of 
the heart, we may pause for one moment to observe^ 
could not have been caused by the selfish dread of 
man. Why should the minister of Christ, my breth- 
ren, in the conscientious discharge of duty, harbour 
such a fear in his intercourse with his fellow worms ? 
" I am ready,'' says the Apostle, '^ not to be bound 
only, but also to die at Jerusalem." " None of these 
things move me, neither count I my life dear to my- 
self, so that I may finish my course with joy, and the 
ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus.'^ 
Nor did he make account of the reproaches which the 
pride of intellect vented then,^ as it does nowo^ against 
the doctrine of the cross as " a technical, obscure, and 
frigid theology, worthy only of an era of ignorance^ 
superstition, and slavery."^ " I am not ashamed," (as- 
serts this eminently learned and gifted man) " I am 
not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ." And no doubt 
whilst he was unlocking this treasury of grace to 

* Dr. Channing. 



u 

bring forth to the sinner '' the unsearchable riches of 
Christ,'^ he was not in the condition of those unhappy 
onesj who delve the depths of earth for the benefit of 
others, and dare not appropriate to themselves one 
atom of that precious ore, which is the fruit of their 
unremitting toil. The Truth, to ¥/bich his ministry 
gave explicit and rightful prominence, filled his own 
heart. He must have enjoyed peculiar happiness, and 
reaped a high reward in exercising the full vigor of 
his powers upon the glorious ends of the embassy of 
grace. The experience of his own interest in the 
Saviour's love ; the personal knowledge possessed by 
him of the excellence of the Gospel 5 the clear percep- 
tion of the objects to be accomplished by its ministry 5 
the assurance which he had of his Master's heavenly 
blessing, and of the sympathies and prayers of christian 
friends 5 and the hope of the crown of righteousness 
awaiting him in the day of his Lord's appearing, could 
not but have strengthened and animated him in his 
work. Still it is Paul who apphes to himself the 
memorable words before us. And was there not a 
cause for his cherishing constantly such feelings ? 
Powerful were the considerations pressing upon his 
soul, fitted to cast him down, and to fill Iiim with 
disquietude. It was the language of one who under- 
stood and realised the responsibihty of his office. '' Let 
a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christy 
and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it 
is required in stewards that a man be found faithful" 
It was the language of one, who combined with a 



12 

vigorous and faithful discharge of whatever belongs to 
the pastoral function^ an overwhelming conviction of 
his own helplessness and nnworthiness. "I am the 
least of the Apostles that am not meet to be called an 
Apostle 5^' " Serving the Lord with all humility of 
mind, and with many tears and temptations 5'' '"'for 
who is sufficient for these things ?'' It was the lan- 
guage of one who thought this of himself, which had 
he not recorded it, w^e should not have dared to think 5 
" I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, 
lest that by any means w hen I have preached to others, 
I myself should be a castaw^ay.'^ Such, then, was the 
Subject of the Apostle's ministry, and such the Spirit 
which he maintained in setting it forth. ^^ Other foun- 
dation'' he show^ed by his life, his labors, and his 
death, " no man can lay than that is laid, which is 
Jesus Christ." Solemn, unspeakably solemn, is the 
admonition conveyed by Paul's course to the Servants 
who have to feed and provide for the Lord's family 5 
and m.ay the Holy Ghost, who sustained him in it, 
bless the retrospect to him w ho speaks, to them who 
hear! Building upon this, as the Chief Corner Stone, 
the ministry in God's hands, by us his unworthy in- 
struments, will have an influence for good that is 
beyond human power to estimate 5 but in building on 
any other we do more than labor in vain and spend 
our strength for nought. We record against our- 
selves the cry of souls that perish. 

Friends and brethren, how^ well the impressive 
lesson of the text w- as learned , with what fidelity and 



13 

zeal, humility, patience, and good success this exam- 
ple was followed by him whom God in his providence 
has taken from us, your hearts now unite with mine 
in testifying.^ To you of this parish, he was for the 

* The Rev. Hugh Smith, was born August 29tb, 1795, at the 
Narrows, Long Island. He went to school atFlatbush, and entered 
Columbia College in 1809. Graduating in 1813, he pursued his 
studies for the ministry under Bishop Hobart, from whom he 
received Deacon's Orders in 1816, and Priest's Orders in 1819. 
In November 1816, he was married to Miss Helen Clarke, daugh- 
ter of James B. Clarke, Esq., of Brooklyn. Shortly after his 
marriage he sailed for Savannah, where he supplied the Church 
during the absence of the Rector, the Rev. Mr. Cranston, until the 
following April, when he returned to New- York, and was ap- 
pointed by the Rev. Dr. Bowen, his assistant in Grace Church. In 
the same year he accepted the Rectorship of St. Ann's Church, 
Brooklyn, (the History of that parish, by a Sunday School Teacher, 
details many interesting incidents connected with his rectorship.) 
In 1819, he removed to Augusta, Georgia, and became the Rector 
of the Episcopal Church in that place, where he remained until 
March 1831 ; when he resigned his charge, returned to the North 
to educate his children, and be near his aged relatives ; and was 
elected Rector of Christ Church, Hartford. There were but three 
communicants in Augusta, when Dr. Smith entered upon his 
duties. During his rectorship a beautiful church was built, and a 
large and prosperous parish established. In 1833, having been 
appointed Missionary of the Church of the Holy Evangelists, in 
New-York, he returned to that city, and labored in this field until 
he received a call in 1836, to the rectorship of St. Peter's Church, 
his last parish. In October 1836, at the request of the Standing 
Committee of the General Theological Seminary, he entered upon 
the duties of the Professorship of Pastoral Theology and Pulpit 
Eloquence ; and discharged them with great zeal and fidelity. 
But these duties, in connection with those of his parish, affected 
his health. He resigned his temporary charge of the Professorship, 
and obtaining leave of absence, he sailed for Europe in 1837. He 
returned the same year, with renovated strength and spirits ; and 



14 

last eleven years, a friend, a pastor, and minister of 
the Lord Jesus, in whom you reposed a confidence 
and love which were never shaken, and which God, 
the hearer of prayer, will surely return to you in 
blessing. To me, he was known from his youth, and 
known for qualities which not even friendship itself 
could too highly appreciate. For forty years^ thirty- 
three of which we have spent in the same ministry, 
we were brothers and companions, and at no time was 
the bond thus formed between us weakened and im- 
paired. No man's heart (that I ever knew) was so 
manifestly in all that he said and did, and no one ever 
breathed who was more sincere and steady in his 
attachments, or more indulgent to the failings and 
imperfections of others. Early was he called and 
trained by the grace of God to the knowledge and 
love of spritual things. His career in College, whilst 
it was marked throughout by a diligence in the culti- 
vation of his talents, and the improvement of a vigor- 
ous and well balanced mind, which secured for him 

continued his labors among his attached people, for nearly nine 
years ; when he was compelled again to try a voyage, which was 
again of essential service. His health continued good, until July, 
1848 ; the time when he last sailed for England. After a short 
sojoui-n, he returned wholly incapacitated for further duty. Dr. 
Smith received the degree of Doctor in Divinity, from Columbia 
College, in 1838. The corner stone of St. Peter's Church, was 
laid in 1^36, and the noble and beautiful building was consecrated 
in 1838. The number of communicants in the last report prepared 
by the Rector, but not published, was 250. Dr. Smith expired 
at St. Peter's Rectory, on Sunday morning, March 25th, in the 54th 
year of his age. 



15 

a most honorable rank in his ckss, and by a purity of 
motives, urbanity of deportment, and integrity of con- 
duct, for which he was always esteemed by them w^ho 
knew him, was adorned by that consistent and unaf- 
fected piety, which is the young man's chief ornament 
and crown. Under its deep impressions, with the 
lively hope long cherished and watered by many 
prayers and tears, that the love of God and of his 
fellow-men, had been shed abroad in his soul, con- 
straining him to live not unto himself, but unto Him 
who had died for him and rose again, he was drawn 
by His grace to the work of the highest dignity and 
weightiest charge ; — '' To preach Christ, and him 
crucified.'' From the time of his ordination, in 1816, 
to his parting hour, this work was set as a seal upon 
his heart 5 and in the important fields to which he 
was successively called, it was pursued with a spirit of 
humble, earnest, self-sacrificing devotedness which has 
won for him an enduring name, and bequeathed to us 
who mourn, so bright an example. Often, very often, 
as years have come round, and when we have taken 
sweet counsel together, have words, such as these, 
been on his lips^' ^^We preach Christ crucified, my 
dear brother. This is our work. Let us preach Him 
to the end, in the glory of his Godhead, in the mighty 
efficacy of his atonement, and in the offer of his own 
priceless gift, the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. 
As the Lord our righteousness ; Christ Jesus made 
unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, 
and redemption. This is the testimony for the times. 



16 

This is the great truth to be witnessed. We love our 
Church. Side by side we have humbly tried to be 
faithful to her interests. The holding forth of this 
truth^ we believe, to be her chief glory. What would 
she be were its hght in her to set ? Let us not know 
anything besides Jesus, and Him crucified.^^ And so 
it was. Friends and Brethren. In season and out of 
season, this was his message to the people given to his 
charge, and which through that abihty coming from 
God alone, made him wise to win souls. This spot 
where I stand, had it a voice could say, not only how^ 
vivid and just were the conceptions possessed by him 
of such a message, but also how able, and honest, and 
true he w^as in conveying clear and deep impressions 
of it to others. The chamber of sickness, the house 
of mourning, the bed of the dying, the habitation of 
the aged and the poor 5 all can attest a faithful and un- 
tiring w^ork of sympathy and love, and with what 
humbleness of mind, (often, very often indeed, when 
the hand of bodily disease and suffering was heavily 
upon him) he aimed to make ^' full proof of his ministry,'^ 
" not seeking his own profit, but the profit of many that 
they may be saved.'' Feeding thus the flock committed 
to his care, taking the oversight, not by constraint, but 
willingly, not as a Lord over God's heritage, but in all 
things an example, in word, in conversation, in chari- 
ty, in spirit, in faith, in purity, the Chief Shepherd 
drew near and found him on the wat( h, and waiting 
for his appearing. The sickness whirh |>roved his 
last visitation, gradually, as you are aware, sapped his 



17 

strength, and severed the strings of life. Twice, 
though not without great reluctance, and only under a 
full conviction of the duty of trying every proper 
means to lengthen his days for further work in his 
Lord's vineyard, was he induced to yield to the 
advice of friends, and cross the ocean in search of 
health. But God willed it otherwise, and he was 
compelled on his return last autumn, after a sad strug- 
gle for you, and for himself, to resign his parish. The 
insidious malady, gathering renewed power, brought 
with it many days of acute pain 5 but they were borne 
with that christian submission which our brother had 
learned at his Master's feet. Week after week, hope 
gleamed up in many an anxious countenance, only to 
be again extinguished ; and to try still more the faith 
of his servant, God in his wisdom, took from the 
embrace of a weeping household, its youngest prop, 
and filled with fresh bitterness the cup.^ Yet, mingled 
as that cup was by a Heavenly Father's hand, it was 
not refused, and no doubt it helped to strengthen his 
watchfulness for his own departure. Three days be- 
fore it came, he took occasion, when we were left 
alone, to express his perfect conviction, that his course 
was run 5 and then in words never to be forgotten, spoke 
of his unworthiness in the sight of God, and of the 
feeling which he had of the short comings and imper- 
fections of his ministry. " At times, said he, " I am 

* Thomas D. Smith, youngest son of Dr. Smith, died on the 
16th of January, after an illness of several weeks, in the 17th 
year of his age. 



18 

almost overwhelmed at the thought of my sinfulness, 
and then again, it seems as if I pierced through the 
veiy (looking earnestly upward) "and saw my Saviour 
interceding for me.'' "Oh, His blood can wash all 
away.'' " My Friend and Brother," he continued, 
" when you and I first began the ministry, I think we 
laid too much stress upon the outward. You know 
what I mean, but since then, Anthon, both of us, 
thanks be to God, have been better taught, I trust, 
how to preach simply and fully Christ and him cruci- 
fied." Looking at me very earnestly, as I was pre- 
paring to leave him, he observed, " And now remember 
that what I said four years ago, when I was so ill that 
I did not expect to live, I say again. In many things 
which I have done, I believe that I did wrong ; but in 
that one matter ^^ when you and I stood up to bear 
our testimony for Christ, and the Churchy I feel per- 
suaded, now^ as ever^ mark it well, that we did right j 
and the developements, from that time to this, prove it 
was right. This gives me comfort now. Understand 
me. I do not take any merit to myself, not a particle 
of merit. I am nothing. I mention it to show how 
God, to whom I had made my prayer, gave me grace, 
and enabled me to bear up for the duty. Therein I 
rejoice and find comfort not^?."t From the following 

* Referring to the Protest made by us, July 2nd, 1843, in 
St. Stephen's Church, New- York, against the admission of Mr. 
Arthur Carey, to the order of deacons. See Statement of Facts , 
§r. Harper and Brothers, 1843. 

t The words in itahcs, are the words emphasized in his peculiar 



19 

day, and until his death, a beloved relative, a minister 
of the Presbyterian Church, was by his side, whose 
privilege it was to comfort him, and to witness the 
closing triumph.^ At my request he has furnished me 
with particulars, which appeal at once to all our hearts. 
" On Friday,'' he states, '' I was summoned to my 
uncle's bedside. He had been for some time in a 
troubled sleep, and startled out of it as I entered, he 
began at once to repeat the hymn, ' Jesus, Saviour of 
my soul.' Having roused himself thoroughly with 
this, he told me that ' his end was drawing near ; that 
this last failure was very sudden, still he had no fears.' 
' That Rock, that blessed Rock,' said he, ' if our feet 
are once upon it, nothing can dislodge us.' He wished 
me to bear testimony, that he put all his trust in the 
atonement 5 repeating earnestly the text, ^ And the 
blood of Jesus Christ his Son, cleanseth us from all 



way. It would be difficult to describe his energy of manner. On 
the day after this interview, he recurred to this subject, when his 
nephew was at his bedside, and gave the same testimony in almost 
the same language. He mentioned also to him, *' his extreme 
caution and anxiety," at the time the protest was made. *' How 
he had been roused from his bed at three o'clock of that very 
morning, to visit a dying man, had staid by him til] all was over, 
and comforted his widow ;" then returning home, how he had 
*' knelt down by this very bed; where," said he, ** I now lie, and 
prayed with ear nest, Jer vent supplication, that if I were under any 
delusion, God would show it to me, and not suffer me to do any 
thing improperly, or disturb the peace of His Church;" how he 
** arose and went to St. Stephen's, and felt sustained and strength- 
ened." 

* The Rev. Hugh S. Carpenter, 



20 

sin.' 'YeSj all sin.' He evinced great humility on 
account of sin, often saying, ^ I have had many infir- 
mities.' ' I am a great sinner.' When I sought to 
comfort him by referring to his past labors, he would 
at first be melted to tears of joy, and himself recal 
instances of the kind, especially among the poor, but 
generally he distrusted himself so much as to stop me 
at once, saying, ^I am nothing.' ^I desire to lie lovsr 
before the Cross.' ^ A sinner saved by grace.' When 
texts and promises of Scripture v^ere quoted, he took 
up the M^ords and finished the quotation himself, and 
seemed to dehght chiefly in such passages as were 
fullest of Christ. ^ Is not that a noble text 1' he asked 
with great animation, ^ It doth not yet appear what we 
shall be.' And again, ' Behold, O God, our shield, and 
look upon the face of thine Anointed.' 'Yes, the 
Anointed One, Anointed to be a Saviour, the Messiah.' 
He said repeatedly, ' the truths which I have preach- 
ed to others, they comfort me now? His sense of 
unworthiness at no time deprived him of confidence. 
He exclaimed boldly, ' though I walk through the 
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.' 
' I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.' ' I have no 
fears.' ' It is all peace, perfect peace 5' and he spoke 
with great composure of those whom he should recog- 
nize in glory. On Saturday morning, thinking that 
his end was near, he observed, ' my time is very short,' 
' I must leave my testimony.' For every one he had 
some affectionate word of exhortation, pointing them 
all to the Saviour j sent messages to the absent, ap- 



21 

peared to overlook none ; and constantly kept saying, 
^ my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is, that 
they may be saved.' '' 

It was early on that same morning, my brethren, 
that a message vs^as brought to me that he was dying. 
Upon approaching his bedside, he said to me, ^^ I am 
going, my Friend and Brother.'' "Is it peace?" I 
asked. " All peace," he replied, " through his merits," 
pointing his finger to heaven. " A Sinner saved by 
grace 5 mark this well." Before we parted the Com- 
munion was administered to him by the Rev. Dr. 
Turner.^ " The night which succeeded was one of 
great restlessness 5 but on Sunday morning, he became 
calm, and expressed his firm, but humble hope, that 
God would receive him, and Jesus would be with 
him 5 remarking, " that he should not live the day out," 
and requesting once more, the prayers of the congre- 
gation. The church bell sounded loudly in the room, 
but he would not have it silenced 5 saying, that it did 
not disturb him. Almost speechless, a lingering look 
of devoted love and solemn consciousness was cast 
upon all encircling him. It was an hour always to be 
remembered. The organ was rolling up its tones that 
seemed to sound like the voices of another sphere. 



* Besides the family, the Rev. Dr. Wilson, myself, and one or 
two other friends partook of the Communion. Dr. Smith had 
previously remarked to me and others, with emphasis, '^ Remem- 
ber that I desire it not as a viaticum, a necessary provision for a 
sinner in the death journey ; but for refreshment. We do thus 
show forth the Lord's death till he come.*' 



22 

and the anthem's wave broke majestically upon the 
stillness of that chamber. Then there was a sudden 
silence, for the sound of supplication was too subdued 
to reach his ears ; but he knew full well, that at that 
moment the people who loved him, and had often 
listened to his voice, were in prayer for him to God. 
In a few moments his change came. He gently 
breathed his last. 



I " I heard a voice from Heaven, saying unto me, 
Write from henceforth blessed are the dead who die in 
the Lord. Even so saith the Spirit, for they rest from 
their labors. Amen.'' 



LC 



UL '09 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



027 261 048 4. 







-WSESI^ 





